A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE 
17 
ually became worse, until his system, enfeebled by a weak heart, 
scarcely resisted the other difficulties that began to burden him. 
It is true that periods of improvement alternated with those of 
depression, but the doubt that hovered over him cast its shadow 
through the laboratory. It was at this time that Mrs. Brooks 
died. 
Such health as he had known, never came back wholly, and 
months passed before interest in life and work returned. With 
renewed vigor he studied his hydroids, his salpas, and the oyster, 
began to complete researches half-forgotten, and to start new 
ones. The Sunday evenings at Brightside, too, were resumed, 
and amid clouds of smoke, he read Berkeley or his own writings. 
This was Indian summer. 
At home, much of his most vital teaching was done. Stretched 
comfortably in his steamer chair, in full view of the books and pic- 
tures that he loved, and surrounded by a famil}^, not in the narrow 
sense, but one in which his students, his negro servants, his dogs, 
and his flowers had each a place, he was thoroughly at ease. Often, 
as he laid his hand affectionately on Jupe's great head, he spoke 
with tenderness of the details of his home-life. 
If one thing must be singled out to explain the affection he 
inspired, it is that he himself was affectionate. The loyalty that 
led him to give of his own small income in times of need and 
made him speak of former students as though they had been with 
him only yesterday, included other things, his science, his duties 
as a teacher, and his university. In its period of hardship he 
economized, and offers from other institutions did not shake him. 
His interests were human, and his science a pathway along 
which he walked in humility to view the world and to interpret 
it. The great problems were not mere exercises for the mind, but 
human difficulties. The teacher and the man were inseparable 
and it was no less the man than the teacher who inspired others. 
1905-08 J It was during Professor Brooks' declining years that 
he honored me with his friendship. On these visits of his to the 
' Dr. A. G. Mayer, Carnegie Institution of Washington. 
THE JODRK.VL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY, VOL. 9. NO. I. 
